Passenger vehicle sales nosedive 31% in July

ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

New Delhi, August 13 

Domestic passenger vehicle sales in July dived at the steepest pace in nearly two decades, an auto industry body said on Tuesday, as a financing crunch deepened a crisis in the country’s auto sector and triggered large-scale job losses.

Sales of passenger vehicles to car dealers plunged 30.9% to 200,790 units in July, the ninth straight month of decline, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed.

The drop in sales is the worst since December 2000, when the industry sold a fifth of the vehicles it sells currently.

The crisis in the auto sector presents a major problem for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, just as he begins his second term in office, as the sector accounts for nearly half of India’s manufacturing output. The auto industry employs over 35 million people directly and indirectly. “If this industry goes down, then everything gets hurt.

Manufacturing, jobs and revenue to the government,” Vishnu Mathur, director general, SIAM, told reporters on Tuesday, adding that car and motorcycle manufacturers have already slashed about 15,000 jobs. — Reuters

Steepest fall in nearly two decades

• The auto sector accounts for nearly half of the country’s manufacturing output. The auto industry employs over 35 million people directly and indirectly
• The industry accounts for 7% of GDP 
• GDP growth rate, currently at 5-year low, could fall further
• India’s jobless rate climbed to 7.51% in July from 5.66% a year earlier, according to private data group CMIE